Princess Lessons
by Michelle285
Summary: Uses the same characters as My Ladybug. Kaylee is starting to move on up in the princess life. What is the next step? Will she enjoy it?


_Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize_

 _A/N: I have been playing around with this idea for a while but haven't had any time in the past six months. I'm about to lose time again (Master's classes) but I decided to try and get this written before I did. I have another Clarisse/Joe idea floating, but right now this one was formed better. Also, my last Kaylee fic was centered around Kaylee and Joe, so this one is probably going to show more of Kaylee and Clarisse's relationship. Enjoy!_

"Is it time yet?"

"No, not yet."

A few seconds passed. "What about now?"

Mia let out a sigh. "Kaylee, really!"

"I can't help it!" Kaylee exclaimed. "I'm excited!"

"I know, honey," Mia said. She knew Kaylee was excited about her very first princess lesson with Clarisse. "But asking me about it every few seconds isn't going to make it get here any faster."

Kaylee's sigh almost mimicked her mother's perfectly. "And you're _very busy_."

Mia tried to smile. She had been very busy lately. She had always promised herself she wouldn't end up like her grandmother, all wrapped up in her work and not paying attention to everything around her, but lately she was seeing that was near to impossible. Everyone needed attention and everything needed to be taken care of and it seemed she was the only one who could do it!

"I am busy," Mia confirmed, "But that's not why you need to stop asking."

Kaylee bounced up and down on her toes. She just couldn't seem to stay still. "Could you tell me about your princess lessons again? Did you love them and love spending time with Grandma? Is that when you found out that Grandma and Grandpa were in love? How long did it take before you graduated to queen lessons? Were they just as fun or more fun? Did the lessons teach you how to run a country? Did you just do so great in them all? Do you think I'll be as good as you were?"

Mia pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. Her daughter was exactly like her in many respects and this was another reminder. She wasn't sure Kaylee had taken a breath between any of those questions.

"I hope you're better at it than I am," Mia told her daughter truthfully. She had tried to be diplomatic when talking about it so far but she decided the truth was now in order. "I actually hated those lessons."

"Mommy!" Kaylee cried. "That's a horrible thing to say! Those lessons were needed to be sure you would be a great queen!"

At that, Mia couldn't contain herself. She burst out laughing. There were times when Kaylee was a replica of Mia but there were also times when she was an exact replica of Clarisse. "Your grandmother would be so proud."

"By what?" Clarisse asked, having just walked into the room with Joe.

"I can't believe Mommy hated princess lessons!" Kaylee exclaimed, still a bit shocked. She may be young, but she heard talk, and the word around was that Mia was almost as good a queen as Clarisse had been.

Clarisse chuckled quietly. "She definitely wasn't thrilled by them."

Kaylee shook her head while rolling her eyes. "Mommy, that's despicable!"

When the laughter from Kaylee's last statement had calmed, Mia turned toward Clarisse. "Grandma, did you teach her that? I know she didn't learn the word 'despicable' from me!"

Clarisse put a mock haughty look on her face, though there was a gleam in her eye. "I did no such thing!"

Kaylee was back to bouncing. Though she did love it when Clarisse and Joe came into the office, they seemed to get her mom to relax and not be so queenly, she was getting impatient.

Mia noticed her daughter's movements. Kaylee had learned not to interrupt adults, to wait her turn to talk and not to say everything that came to her mind the minute it did, but she was still young. "I think if you don't start those princess lessons soon, Kaylee might explode."

Clarisse smiled and reached out her hand for the small girl. Kaylee immediately grasped it. "Are we going to start?"

"Yes," Clarisse told the blonde girl.

"Yes!" Kaylee cried as they headed toward the door. "I have so many questions."

Joe turned to Mia as the door closed behind the two. "How long do you think it will be before Clarisse gets a chance to talk?"

"Oh, a good ten minutes," Mia joked. "Maybe longer."

"It makes you happy, doesn't it," Joe said. It wasn't really a question, even though it was phrased as one.

"It does," Mia answered, even though she knew he hadn't expected a verbal response. "As much as I hated them, I really do hope Kaylee loves the lessons. The way she's going, she may be a better queen than me…maybe a better one than Grandma even!"

Joe gave Mia a pretend glare. "No one could accomplish that!"

"You're biased, Joe," Mia said. "Besides, with the way you love Kaylee, you'd think you'd agree."

"I do love that little girl," Joe agreed. "I love you too, Princess."

"I know. I love you too, Joey," Mia teased.

Joe just rolled his eyes and walked out of the room to Mia's laughter behind him.

-%

Clarisse smiled hearing her great-granddaughter ask her "questions." Many of them were quite pertinent to being queen and Clarisse knew these princess lessons were a good idea.

The lessons weren't originally going to be done. After all, Clarisse had only insisted on giving them to Mia because she had not grown up in the royal life and did not even know she was royalty until she was sixteen. Also, she was a very precocious girl (as was Kaylee in her own right) and she needed training. As for Kaylee, Mia felt that growing up in the royal spotlight was enough.

Clarisse, however, did not agree. There were some things that just had to be taught to a young girl. Especially a girl who was exactly like Mia. Clarisse and Mia actually had a bit of a fight about it because Mia felt Clarisse was saying she was not a good mother and would not be able to teach Kaylee the things she needed to know. That was not it at all. Clarisse knew how time consuming being a queen could be and how there just wasn't time for everything in the day. She also knew how fast time could go and how quickly children could grow up. Clarisse dreaded the day that Kaylee was invited to a royal dinner (because by that point she would no longer be her "little girl") and Mia not having had time to teach her etiquette or which fork to use first. Clarisse knew that sounded trivial and not all important for a six year old, but unfortunately, Elsie Kentworthy and the other news cronies would focus on Kaylee first and foremost. Apart from that, Kaylee would be very young when she would attend a formal dinner precisely because she grew up as royalty. She didn't want Kaylee's first state dinner to turn out like Mia's or even Clarisse's and have it be all over the news.

Kaylee turned to look at Clarisse and asked her last question. "I will be a good queen, won't I?"

"You will be a great queen, darling," Clarisse assured the girl.

"Will I…well, will I get to be queen?" Kaylee had to ask this. This question had been plaguing her since last week and she didn't know how to bring it up with her mother. She had considered talking to Joe about it, but she hadn't found the time and now, with these princess lessons, she figured this would be a good time.

"Of course you will," Clarisse told her. "Why wouldn't you? Your mother will retire eventually, just as I did."

Kaylee nodded. "Oh, I know that. I just…well, Layla told me that boys are better than girls when it comes to royal things. She said kings are always better than queens. Now that Ryan is born, he might get to beat me and be king since they are better."

Clarisse knew that Layla was Lilly's daughter and sometimes much too talkative. Again, just like Lilly. "Layla is wrong. The firstborn is always first in line for the throne."

"Uncle Pierre didn't get the throne," Kaylee pointed out logically.

"Because he didn't want it," Clarisse said. "He felt a calling to become a priest so that is what he did. Had he not become a priest, he would've become king. However, Ryan cannot surpass you just because he is a boy."

"Are you sure?" Kaylee asked again. "I know it may be stressful and annoying sometimes, but I really want to be a queen. I really want to be a good queen. I want to be up there on the wall next to you and Grandpa Philippe and Mommy. I have heard about the great things that have been done and I want to do great things too. I want the people to love me."

Clarisse tried hard not to cry hearing these statements from this insightful six-year old. She swept Kaylee up in a hug. "You will be amazing. The people will be crazy if they don't love you. I love you."

Kaylee smiled into her great-grandmother's shoulder. "I love you too, Grandma."

-%

The door to Mia's office burst open. Mia looked up, knowing it was Kaylee back from her princess lessons. No one else in the palace opened doors quite like her daughter did.

"Oh, Mommy, they were amazing!" Kaylee exclaimed. "I learned so much!"

Mia smiled at her daughter. She didn't know if her daughter liked the lessons because of what she learned or because of some other reason but it didn't really matter. Mia hoped Kaylee continued to enjoy them. "That's great, honey. What did you learn?"

Kaylee turned to look at her grandmother, who had just arrived into the room, entering at a much more sedate pace. Looking back at Mia, Kaylee said, "The art of the fan."

Mia chucked. "You did not."

Clarisse handed something to Kaylee and Kaylee flicked her hand. A colorful fan immediately opened, Kaylee turned her head and put the fan in front of her face. "I do not wish to speak to you!"

Hearing Clarisse laugh, Kaylee turned to face her mother with a smile on her face. Seeing her mother's shell-shocked look, Kaylee hid her face behind the fan.

In the next second, Mia began to laugh. She got out of her chair and hugged both her grandmother and her daughter. "Thank you."

Kaylee looked at her grandmother. Kaylee was wearing the same look Mia had worn seconds before. "You were right! It did make her laugh!"

Clarisse, sporting quite a smug smile, winked. "I told you."

"Where's Grampa?" Kaylee asked, changing subjects as deftly as only she could.

"I think he's with Ryan," Mia said.

Kaylee let out a dramatic sigh. "He's always with Ryan. I'm going to go see if we can go riding. Without Ryan!"

Mia smiled. "He spent much more time with you when you were a baby."

"How would you go about taking Ryan riding?" Clarisse idly wondered. Ryan had only been born six months ago.

"We're not!" Kaylee exclaimed. "Not even if we could!" With that statement, Kaylee skipped out of the room.

-%

"She really wanted to make you laugh," Clarisse told Mia.

Mia knew Clarisse was talking about Kaylee and knew she was referring to the "art of the fan" and everything Kaylee had done with it.

"I know," Mia said with a sigh. "I have so much respect for you. It keeps growing every single day. The way I'm going, in a few years, I won't even know my children. How did you do it?"

Clarisse thought about that question. She didn't think "I had a king to help me" was a good response. After all, until Rupert died, she wasn't really treated as a queen. In all important social functions and festivals she was expected to make appearances (and keep appearances up!) but when it came to the treaties and everything that needed to be taken care of, Rupert was the one the dignitaries looked for and the one to whom people wanted to talk. She was only royal by marriage and wasn't considered important until after Rupert died and people saw she could handle the royal title.

"I had children when Rupert was still king," Clarisse finally decided an honest answer was best. "You know you don't have to be the perfect queen all the time. You're royal by blood. You could put things off or change schedules and make decisions having to do with your activities and children that I could never get away with."

Mia shook her head. "I may be royal by blood, but Parliament still sees me as that sixteen-year-old girl who doesn't know anything about Genovia or royalty. I _have_ to be the perfect queen. Even more than you did!"

"No, you don't," Clarisse disagreed. "You are making a difference as a ruler, just as you said you wanted to do. Do you really want to give up time with your children though? I regret every second I was so worried about being the _perfect_ queen. Because of that I missed out on time with the best granddaughter."

"That may have had to do with the fact I didn't know we were royal," Mia teased good-naturedly.

Clarisse smiled. "Maybe. Regardless of what you decide, you are an amazing queen."

Mia bit her lip, hardly daring to believe such a compliment (from her grandmother no less) could be true. "Really?"

"Really," Clarisse confirmed.

Mia flew at her grandmother and wrapped her in a giant hug. "Grandma, you don't know how much it means to me to hear you say that."

Clarisse wrapped her arms around her granddaughter. Mia had grown so much and moments like this made her long for when Mia was young. She missed out on so many hugs. "I love you, darling."

Mia squeezed her eyes shut to hold back her tears. "I love you too."

Pulling back, Mia looked at her grandmother critically. "You didn't really teach her 'the art of the fan' did you?"

Clarisse cocked an eyebrow at Mia. "You still don't think that was important? How many times have you used a fan?"

"Counting the time with you?" Mia asked. "Once!"

Clarisse couldn't hold back her laughter.

Suddenly, grandmother and granddaughter heard the door open yet again. Joe, with Kaylee's hand in his, looked at two of the most important women in his life. "I think we interrupted something."

Kaylee, unconcerned about what they interrupted, announced, "Grampa and I are going riding."

"Kaylee," Mia said, "How about I take you riding instead?"

Kaylee's eyes widened. Riding was always something she did with Joe, but if her mother was offering to take her riding… "Really?"

Mia smiled, knowing Kaylee's last question mimicked her statement of moments before; the same skeptical look, the same tone of hope mixed with disbelief. "Really."

Kaylee shrieked and ran at her mother. She danced around her mother in excitement.

Mia laughed and scooped her daughter up in her arms. "Let's do this!"

-%

Joe looked at his wife, closing the door of their suite behind him. "You initiated that, didn't you?"

Clarisse knew he was talking about Mia's sudden decision to take Kaylee riding. Her only response was to shrug noncommittally. Joe saw the satisfied smile on her face, though, and knew she had everything to do with it. "I just gave her some things to think about."

Joe sighed. "I'm a little disappointed. I was looking forward to going riding with my number one girl."

Clarisse smiled. She loved that he called Kaylee that, still though, she couldn't let that comment pass. She put on her best pout. "I thought I was your number one girl."

"My number one woman," Joe said walking toward her. "First, last and always."

Clarisse tried not to make her contented sigh too obvious. He could always melt her heart with a few words and one of _those_ smiles. "You know, if you're really that disappointed about not being able to ride with Kaylee, I could always help you…take your mind off of it."

Joe quietly growled and attacked her lips in a kiss. He knew that in a matter of moments he wouldn't even remember what he was disappointed about. In fact, the word "disappointed" wouldn't be in his vocabulary at all.

 _For all you C/J shippers…that last segment was for you. I really, really, really wanted to end it after Mia said let's go…but I also really, really, really wanted to write a Clarisse and Joe moment! I couldn't decide but then since I may not get that other story written, I decided to just go with it. Tell me if you liked the story or not. Personally, I'm really not sure Mia would get all wrapped up in being queen like Clarisse did, but somehow, that's the direction the story took! WildiMeiLing, I'm sorry Ryan wasn't in the story too much, maybe I'll write one focused around him…though I haven't really developed him yet. I hope everyone who read enjoyed…leave me a review and thanks for stopping by!_


End file.
